While the names Boyd Coddington and Hot Rods are pretty synonymous there were some pretty cool restorations and non-hot rod builds that Hot Rods by Boyd handled back in the day. This one in particular was a rare beauty. This Porsche 1955 550 Spyder was car #015. It was brought to my dad in 1986 to get ready for the 14th Annual Monterey Historic Vehicle Races the following year. The car was completely stripped down to bare aluminum. This car came with a rare louvered belly pan that after years of driving was pretty hammered. Metal master Marcel DeLay took on the task of recreating the belly pan to match exactly. The car took about a year to restore. When it came time to paint the customer said he just wanted a standard Porsche silver. When my dad started doing his homework he called the customer to come over and help pick. I guess there were something like 400-500 shades of silver that were produced during those years. I think the shade they picked with those red accents coming off the tail lights nailed it.

Besides hot rod wheels we also produce some of the nicest and lightest wheels for Porsche 550 Spyder and 356 Speedsters around. You can check them out here

I came across some old pictures of the very first car to be built at the Orange Ave location. This 1929 2 door sedan was started sometime after my family moved to Orange Ave and the back garage was built. This car predates the Vern Luce coupe which was built in the same location. You can tell by the pictures that the clean ‘Boyd Look’ was starting to take shape early on. The “look” that would really take shape with the Vern Luce coupe and continue on from there. The day the customer came to the shop to take delivery of it he asked my dad if he could do a little burnout as he left. Thinking the customer was joking since he surely wouldn’t want to hammer down on the blown 350 in the first few seconds that he owned and drove the car away my dad joked back ,”Sure. Roast the tires off the thing”. Being the wild character that the customer was he rolled out onto Orange Ave and hammered it. Smoked the tires and went down Orange Ave sideways in two directions. When the customer got home the phone was ringing and it was my dad calling ” What the hell were you thinking?” The customer just laughed and said “You told me to roast the tires off the thing” . Here are some pics from that first build here at Orange Ave.

I make it a point to browse Ebay quite often for Boyd memorabilia. Last week I came across this beauty. This was a jacket that was done right around the time that Hot Rods by Boyd unveiled Roadstar. Roadstar was produced at Hot Rods by Boyd in the mid 90’s from the design expertise of Chip Foose. It featured the new at the time Cadillac Northstar motor in the rear of the vehicle. We actually still have the wood buck that was used to produce the metal body. So whoever Quallies is thank you for keeping the jacket in great condition and putting it on ebay.
If you have any interesting Boyd memorabilia that your looking to sell or need information on feel free to email me

We have a used set of wheels we’re offering at a smoking deal. I say used but they were really just used as rollers to set up a chassis. The chassis and body moved on down the road but the wheels and 2 tires remained. These were a one-off set we did about 4 years ago. They are 19×8 with a 4″ backspace and 20×15 with a 6″ backspace. The are custom powder coated to look ‘as cast’. They are a 5×4.5 bolt circle. The 2 rear Mickey Thompson’s are 29x18x20 Sportsman S/R. These guys have never seen the road and are in decent condition. We will polish them up nicely and put new caps on them for whomever buys these bad boys. The deal is smokin’ so if you think you can make em fit send me an email or call 866-612-2693

For those of you that remember Dan Sobieski from American Hot Rod he now has a shop that resides in part of my dad’s old shop on Lambert Rd in La Habra. Dan’s shop is called Poor Boys Hot Rods. Don’t let the name fool you cause Dan and his crew are working on some nice high dollar, high performance builds. We are working with Poor Boys on one in particular. It’s a 1969 Camaro with all new ZR-1 suspension and drivetrain. The wheel of choice is our Pro-Touring HR-01. 19×9 up front and 20×12 in the rear. As soon as we were done machining them I press fit them in some rims and brought them over for a test fit. The beauty in dealing with 2pc welded wheels is that you can, if needed, test fit them to insure proper fit. The wheels you see in the pics are just machined. The final wheels will have a brushed center with ceramic black paint in the windows and a polished rim. Stay tuned for more updates on this build.

With the recent airing again of American Hot Rod on Velocity I decided to browse through some of the thousands of photographs I have taken over the years to reminisce. I came across some photos I took at the unveiling of the Ghetto Princess and I thought I’d share the photos and the story.
It was decided that we’d unveil the Ghetto Princess at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside California. Anyone who has ever had a loved one that was in the Marines and spent anytime on the west coast has heard of Camp Pendleton. It’s one of the major military bases on the west coast. The plan was to unveil the car for a group of Marines that were returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. I was excited at the chance to go along with the crew and share such a special event with my family. We rented a big bus to accommodate everyone and loaded up early in the am to make the hour trip south. The weather was beautiful and we arrived at Camp Pendleton some time around 10am. They had an area designated where we were going to unveil the car. It was complete with bleachers for the troops and the whole area surrounding where the car and bike would be displayed was flanked by really big military vehicles with really big guns mounted. While we were waiting to bring the car and bike out they allowed us to climb all over all the vehicles and man the machine guns. Everyone was very friendly and I was really excited to talk to the Marines and show my appreciation for the job they do for our country. While I was manning one of the .50 caliber machine guns I noticed some commotion going on over by the troops sitting on the bleachers. I guess Lee had challenged one of the Marines to a push up contest. Lee obviously lost and decided to lose in typical Lee fashion with a little comedy routine.
My dad and Duane ended up driving the car and bike into the area in front of all the Military vehicles. My dad got up in front of everyone and told them the story behind the car and introduced the owner, Rocky Walker, and the rest of the crew. Then all the troops got to get an up close look at both the car and bike. It was a great site to see these guys that have just come back from the war get to see the car and get a sense of true Americana and Hot Rodding. While in the scheme of life Hot Rodding is a bonus it’s because of guys like those Marines and everyone else in the armed forces that protect our freedoms so we can enjoy such things. Great times and great memories.